NewYork, August 8,2012- C24 Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by New Orleans-based artist Skylar Fein. The exhibition will be on view from September 13 through October 25, 2012, with an opening reception on Thursday, September 13 from 6 - 8pm. This will be the artist's first solo gallery exhibition in New York and will present a new series of politically inspired works that will include paintings, sculptures and prints. A conversation with the artist and Dan Cameron, Chief Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art, will take place on Thursday, October 25 at 7:00pm.
Skylar Fein's work is inspired by his interest in various forms of social revolution that range from political figures and music to fringe cultures. He often employs found materials from his current home of New Orleans to illustrate the individuals he views as heroic for having gone against the status quo. Fein's visual language frequently incorporates appropriated imagery and simple graphics taken from the mainstream or sub-cultures, in order to spark curiosity in the viewer about his historical and cultural discoveries.
For his first solo exhibition at C24 Gallery the artist will present new work that includes collages, prints on bed sheets, and paintings. In a series entitled BeckettatWar, Fein turns to Samuel Beckett's involvement with antifascist activities during the Second World War for inspiration. When the Nazis entered Paris, the Irish playwright fled to the south where he entered the Resistance. Fein's new work combines factual and fictional histories, suggested as evidence of this part of Beckett's life that he refused to talk about. "He fought fascism with words, of course, but also with grenades," states Fein, "and in our current climate of a visual art eviscerated of any moral force and clarity, I take what courage I can from his pitiless un-apology."
Also featured in the exhibition will be a series of paintings based on memorabilia from the American punk scene of the 1970-80s and other works that use early Modernism as a starting point to address topics such as fascism, sex and boredom, which the artist likens to "Suprematism on poppers."
About Skylar Fein
Skylar Fein (b. 1968, New York, NY) lives and works in New Orleans, LA. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; The New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; No Longer Empty Project, New York, NY; The Phoenix, New Orleans, LA; and Western Projects, Los Angeles, CA. Fein has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including TheWorldAccordingtoNewOrleans, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; DeutscheBank's60WallGallery, Deutsche Bank, New York, NY; and Prospect.1Biennial, New Orleans, LA, among others. His work is included in many public and private collections including The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Frederick R. WeismanArt Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; The Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans, LA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
